This week’s show begins with an update on how the fierce, determined and ridiculously cute cat Fuzz Aldrin is recovering (you can help with that recovery by visiting http://gofundme.com/save-fuzz-aldrin”). She had to have another emergency procedure this week, which leads to a rather hilarious story about Lily Holleman, “Junior Pet Detective”. It also leads to a conversation about a surgical procedure Dean Haglund will be undergoing the first week of February. Then, Dean and Phil Leirness discuss movies – two “classics” (the comedy To Be or Not to Be and the musical Brigadoon), and five recent releases (Darren Aronosky’s Mother!, Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories, Dan Gilroy’s Roman J. Israel, Esq., Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water and the big winner at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MIssouri).

For the first time in weeks, your friends in podcasting tackle “Celebrity Deaths”, celebrating the life and careers of record producer Rick Hall, actress-singer Rose Marie and film noir icon Peggy Cummins. Then, they tackle the “small screen”, with Phil weighing in on the new Fox sitcom “LA to Vegas”, with Dean assessing the most recent “mirror universe” episode of “Star Trek: Discover” (“The Wolf Inside”), and the two of them discussing the thematic meanings of Season 11 of “The X-Files”, of the most recent episode (“Plus One”) and what the future might hold for the show with or without Gillian Anderson.

Dean Haglund, the actor, improv comic and inventor (best known as “Langly,” one of the three computer-hacking geeks on “The X-Files” and their spin-off series “The Lone Gunmen”) engages in thought-provoking, insightful, and irreverent cultural conversation with his co-host and producing partner, independent filmmaker and certified violence prevention specialist Phil Leirness in the production offices of Rational Exuberance. Warning: Dean and Phil's usually hilarious and frequently inspiring discussions are habit-forming, so please, enjoy responsibly!